Critique Groups, Author Mentors, and Writing Partners OH MY!

I miss my writing partner. We had gotten to know each other’s work too well and needed to reach out to others for feedback. We’ve continued to update each other and next month I’ll have a draft of a new book to share with her. Yay!

It’s actually been about a year since we worked together. That’s how long it’s taken me to seek out what I needed to learn from other sources. So when I shared my final version of the book she knew so well a year ago, I was thrilled to hear her response: “…you’ve made such great choices in this version.”

Then she said, “I can’t wait to pick your brain about how you got to this point,” and I realized I needed to pick my own brain as well. So I started by making a list of all the things I did to arrive at my new and improved version of Terracolina:

1. Read craft books: Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein, and Story Genius by Lisa Cron. I retroactively followed all their recommended strategies as I revised the entire book (again and again).
2. Found 7 different beta readers and listened to them all.
3. Cornered my husband multiple times to get feedback on short sections and stayed open to his perspective.
4. Sent out 20 queries and got 12 rejections (8 no replies) and read between the lines.
5. Presented my first chapter or so in a variety of free profession critiquing sessions and paid attention to their comments.
6. Participated in 4 different critique groups using my first 4K words and considered all their responses.
7. Worked through the entire book again with an online group of 3 of us, asking questions and sharing revisions as we helped each other.
8. Hired a content editor and revised based on recommendations.
9. Hired a copy editor and revised based on recommendations.
10. Hired a proofreader and revised based on recommendations.
11. Decided to Indie Publish, forcing myself to ultimately trust my own judgement and be comfortable listening to myself.

My conclusion about this process? It was overwhelming, confusing, and inspiring. The common challenge was keeping an open mind and listening to what others were noticing. That meant a lot of rewriting and decision making. Yes, I did end up rejecting some suggestions, but I would say the majority of the feedback was spot on, and in that respect I think I got really lucky with the people who guided me.

Could I improve my story further? Probably, but being in charge of my own deadline for publishing, although artificial, gave me the opportunity and the responsibility to trust my own judgement and commitment and know when to say I was done.

The main take-aways for me personally were:

1. The Story Genius’s approach was the best fit for me and I have since used it to write the draft of book 2 of my trilogy. (I sure hope it shortens the process.)
2. I can see better where my writing is redundant.
3. I’m better at choosing when to “show not tell.”
4. I’m better at using conversation.
5. I’m better at avoiding passive voice.
6. I understand story structure more intimately.
7. Taking in so much feedback was hard and overwhelming but worth it.

So partner, here’s your answer. Thanks for providing the challenge.